The Melos is by far your best choice, if headphones are of primary concern, and it doesn't make a bad line stage preamp either. The SHA-1 and SHA-Gold use a tube / solid-state hybrid design, and have a very open three dimensional sound with excellent clarity. The only negative experience I have had is that they are very tube dependant, both for their sound quality and noise levels. You will probably have to repalce tubes about every 1 year or so, which is a high rate from preamps. But, they use only two tubes total, that are readily available and pretty cheap. Personally, repalcing tubes is no problem considering the sound quality delivered per dollar. Most headphones really come to life on the Melos preamps.
Pre Amps or amps for headphones
I am only semi-knowledgeable on higher end audio, but I have heard that Melos makes a Pre Amp (SHA gold reference (and ? ma-200 gold plus)) that is great for headphones. I presently have a HeadRoom Supreme that I use with Sennheiser 580's, but I want to upgrade. Any discussion and advise/opinions will be greatly appreciatged. Others that I have considered are: CLASSE CP 50 pre- Silver Audible Illusions L-1 AUDIO NOTE M-2 Krell but I don't know how they compare with a primary use for headphones. I also have Esotric Audio Research 100 watt mono block amps, a VTL line preamp and ACOUSTAT 2+2 speakers that I might also use the pre amp with, but my primary interest is for a headphoone set up. Thank you in advance for your assistence. bjd
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